IN CONVERSATION

BET’s Hit Drama Being Mary Jane Is Redefining Single Womanhood

“Forty-two percent of black women have never been married,” explains BET’s hit series Being Mary Jane in its very first episode. As show-runner Mara Brock Akil tells us, “That statistic of married women—that’s supposed to be the barometer of success.”

But the show’s titular character, Mary Jane Paul, is a successful, late-thirtysomething news woman, played with real-girl aplomb by Gabrielle Union, who has yet to hit that marriage milestone. And that’s one of the many things that has made Being Mary Jane BET’s highest-rated drama ever—it’s a gutsy, unconventional look at single womanhood through the expectations put on both women of a certain age and women in the workforce.

Brock Akil, a stunningly beautiful and meditative woman, seems, ironically, to have the type of life that has eluded Mary Jane: she and her husband of 16 years, director Salim Akil, with whom she is also creative and business partners through Akil Productions, recently signed a multi-year production deal with Warner Bros. Television, which will kick off next spring. Now in its third season, Being Mary Jane, created by Mara and directed by Salim, has emerged as a ratings juggernaut (averaging 2.6 million weekly viewers since its premiere) that subtly attacks the conventional wisdoms of womanhood—namely, marriage and motherhood—that traditionally define happiness for women, even today.

“The whole show is a conversation,” says Brock Akil. For all of Mary Jane’s success at work, as she continues to shatter the glass ceiling as a hard-hitting prime-time news anchor, she has yet to find “the one”—or even the two.

Courtesy of BET.

Mary Jane’s semi-singledom over the course of three seasons is intentional. “The working title of this was ‘Single Black Female,’ because sometimes we’re reduced to those three words,” Brock Akil says. Though, Mary Jane has had her fair share of close calls, including Sheldon, the wealthy, Ivy League–educated lawyer with a serious case of intimacy issues (because of his O.C.D. he can neither stand the sight of Mary Jane’s used toothbrush on his bathroom sink nor allow himself to climax while having sex). Suffice it to say she is still in the process of kissing her toads. “When you meet Mary Jane, she’s having an affair. . . . These are the choices that are out there for this particular woman,” Brock Akil says, though the ups and downs of her dating life are relatable to most women.

But, if you think this show is completely consumed by Mary Jane’s quest to find her white knight, think again: “I advocate for having moments where Mary Jane is alone [on the show],” Brock Akil says. “And there are a lot of other conversations we have besides ‘Will she be married.’” Indeed, in its run, Being Mary Jane has hit the mark on depression and suicide in the black community, immigration in the U.S., and prison-law reform.

Being Mary Jane is not intended as the modern woman’s guide to “having it all”; though it is also not a sad tale of a woman “at home, depressed, eating ice cream,” says Brock Akil. Instead, it’s one woman’s story of looking inward and defining her own idea of happiness when confronted with a crumbling white picket fence. Recalling one of her favorite moments, when Mary Jane breaks up with the aforementioned climax-challenged Sheldon, Brock Akil says, “I love Mary Jane’s line: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to have kids, if I’m going to be married, but at least I know I want my toothbrush next to someone else’s.’”

As show-runner, Brock Akil cut her teeth in comedy, first as a staff writer for Moesha and then at the helm of two sitcoms, including the Tracee Ellis Ross vehicle Girlfriends. She creates the type of characters you feel you could be friends with, or at least co-workers, or neighbors, or someone you might share a casual chuckle with while waiting in line at Starbucks. (Unsurprisingly, Brock Akil cites Terms of Endearment as one of her biggest cinematic influences.) In last week’s episode, Mary Jane and a friend ponder if she can “reset” any perceived promiscuity (or “her hoe button”) considering she’s over 35 and still single. As a viewer, you find yourself wanting to join in on the banter during this unabashed, intimate moment that Union plays so well.

“What I’ve ultimately always said of my work is that we are all human beings,” Brock Akil says. “We’re all in this together—and it’s O.K. to see it through this black woman’s lens.”

In her move from BET to Warner Bros., Brock Akil plans to continue creating complex, modern portraits of women. “There are a lot of things that inform Mary Jane, and it’s not just her race. I’m writing a character, and she’s going to be herself more than she’s going to be black, and more than she’s going to be a woman, and more than she’s going to be whatever age she is—but all of those things inform her.”

As for Being Mary Jane, Brock Akil will transition into an executive-producer role, but in the search for a new female voice to fill her shoes, she hopes that Being Mary Jane will continue to have a lasting impact on removing some of the stigma for women who choose professional success over motherhood, or marriage. “I hope when [people] see this show and meet [the] ‘Mary Janes’ out there, there might be some compassion for her, as opposed to this statistic on her back, like, Mm, what’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you married?”